1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a tuning resolver configured to support bidirectional communications associated with switched broadcast television (SBT) or other services requiring reverse transmissions.
2. Background Art
Switched broadcast television (SBT) allows television service providers to transmit television signals over a broadcast and switched transmission tiers. The television channels transmitted over the broadcast tier are continuously broadcasted regardless of customer requests to view the channels. The television channels transmitted over the switched tier are transmitted when customers request the channels. When a particular switched tier channel is requested and it is not currently being broadcasted, the provider assigns the associated content for transmission over a particular frequency range, commonly using a QAM channel on an unused portion of a communication spectrum.
A customer requesting the switched tier channel must communicate the request to the SBT provider in order to initiate transmission of the service and to determine its location within the communication spectrum. Some customer premise equipment (CPE), however, are unable to communicate with the SBT provider in a manner sufficient to make the request. Unidirectional digital cable products (UDCPs), for example, are one class of CPE that are unable to communicate switched tier channel request to the SBT provider.